The Cerro Coso volleyball team lost in three sets — 18-25, 21-25 and 11-25 — against Southwestern College Friday at the Ray McCue Center.

"We've been stressing to follow the game plan," Coso head coach Kim Young said. "That includes communication. We need to know who gets the ball in certain situations and who will be the setter in other situations. That's all part of the game plan."

The Coyotes (1-2, 1-1 Foothill Conference) trailed 1-0 after one set, but came out in the second set ready to even the score.

Outside hitter Ashley Sherrick and middle hitter Liz Gammett helped the Coyotes get off to a quick start. Coso grabbed a 7-6 lead during the pivotal second frame, but disaster struck soon after the Coyotes took the slim lead.

The Jaguars went on a 7-1 run then came back with a 5-2 run before the Coyotes recovered.

Cerro Coso ran into each other, made setting errors and made serving errors that let Southwestern take a 21-14 lead.

"I feel like we’re better than what we showed (Friday)," Young said. "Communication and unforced errors hurt us a lot."

Young called a timeout to settle the team down.

The strategy worked. Coso answered with a 6-2 run that saw Sherrick start to find her rhythm with two kills. The run cut the Jaguars' (1-3) lead to three at 23-20.

However, the Coyotes couldn't overcome the huge deficit from the mistakes midway through the set, which ultimately led to a 25-21 second-set loss.

Young switched up the lineup in the final stanza, but to no avail as the Jaguars looked to close out their win. Southwestern jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back.

The Jaguars closed their three-set win with a 15-3 run, which left the Coyotes ready eager to get back on the court to avenge the loss.

"The girls were disappointed because they know that they can hang with this team," Young said. "We left the locker room with a positive attitude and with the understanding that we're going to come back to practice and work hard. It was a good learning experience for us because the girls were not happy with how we played tonight. They were in the locker room upset and that's good. It's good to have that bad taste in your mouth. We better come back to practice ready to fix some of our issues."

Sherrick had seven kills and 11 digs. Gammett had six kills. Laura Metcalf added five kills, while Adrianna Volentine had 10 digs.

“I’m hoping to find some type of rotation where I can always have Adrianna in the middle. She does a great job there for us. She serve received 23 times for us and made only one error. That’s really good,” Young said.

Page 2 of 2 - The Coyotes are back in action at 9 a.m., Sept. 14 in Imperial Valley College Tournament.